Are pre-paid stands helpful?

Are pre-paid stands helpful?
Asian Age



Bangalore, March 5: Picture this: At 8.30 pm on MG Road a long queue is standing outside the pre-paid counter for autos, but not a single one is in sight. It has been three months, but the woes of autorickshaw commuters have not been simplified but have been aggravated. When the Bangalore Traffic Police brought out the pre-paid counters at MG Road, Kamaraj Road Junction and Koramangala, little did they know that it would run empty over a period of time causing difficulties to the commuters.

So why is everything going wrong with pre-paid counters? According to former IGP and MP H.T. Sanghliana, the pre-paid counters should have been made in alliance with the traffic police and autorickshaw unions. Says M. Manjunatha of Adarsha Auto and Taxi Drivers Union, "The traffic police should have taken the auto drivers union into confidence. The pre-paid stand was a success at the City Railway Station because the traffic department won the support of the unions."

However the police have another story to tell. M.A. Saleem, DCP (Traffic-East) argues, "The counters were created for public welfare not to cater to the autorickshaw drivers. To ease traffic we need to take off private vehicles on the roads by making autos more accessible. Also we want to bring down public harassment."

There are only 50 per cent of the commuters who feel that pre-paid autos have actually helped. Ms Sonia Rao, a college student says, "Once I was helped by a traffic policeman to get an auto from Koramangala counter to Cox Town, we had hardly gone a few metres when he stopped the auto saying that the gas had finished leaving me stranded at night."

Sometimes the traffic police does not assist too. Says, Mr Rohit Pai an IT professional, "The traffic police can be non-cooperative too. It was only 9 pm when an auto driver demanded one-and-a-half fare and the policeman was of no help to me."